Sweet Fortune

something a little more productive?”
    “Such as?” she asked.
    “Such as setting a date for a wedding.”
    “So you can get it on your calendar?” she retorted. “Get the big day properly scheduled into your busy life? Are you sure you can make time for a honeymoon? We're talking two whole weeks here, Hatch. That's the traditional length of time, I believe. Are you sure you can stay away from the office that long?”
    “It's amazing how much work you can get done in a hotel room if you bring along the right equipment,” he said seriously. “What with fax machines and modems and laptop computers, a man can take his office with him these days.”
    “ There isn't going to be any wedding .” The knife Jessie had been using to draw little patterns in the tablecloth suddenly jumped out of her fingers and teetered on the edge of the table. She watched in dismay as it toppled over the edge. It landed on the carpet in merciful silence. When she glanced up to meet Hatch's gaze she thought she saw a cool satisfaction in his eyes.
    “It's not funny,” she muttered.
    “I know.”
    She was incensed. “I'll bet you do think it's funny, don't you?”
    “No. How could I, with my nonexistent or, at best, extremely limited sense of humor?” he asked reasonably. “Forget the knife, Jessie. The waiter will bring you another one. Tell me something.”
    “What?”
    “Do you still think I'm incapable of giving our marriage the amount of attention it would need?”
    “After that crack about bringing along a fax machine and a modem on your honeymoon, what else am I supposed to think?”
    “I give you my word of honor they won't get in the way,” he said earnestly. “I work very efficiently.”
    Jessie stared at him. He was teasing her. She was almost certain of it. And she was rising to the bait like a well-trained little fish. She forced herself to relax before she dropped anything else on the floor.
    “Come on, Jessie. Tell me the truth. I'm not nearly as much like your father as you thought back at the beginning. Right?”
    “Okay, I admit it. You're turning out to be a very different sort of man, even though you've got a lot of the same workaholic tendencies. My father would never have helped me figure out what's happening to Susan Attwood.” Or gone out of his way to keep Elizabeth from being disappointed at the science fair. Or worried very much about my motives for marrying you , she added silently. Not that I am going to marry you , she corrected herself immediately.
    “So I'm not such a bad guy, after all? I think we're making some progress here.”
    “Maybe we are. I have to tell you something, Hatch. I'm not sure you're right to try to yank me out of the family loop, as you call it, but I will say that no one has ever tried to rescue me from anything before. It's kind of a novel experience.”
    Hatch started to smile slowly, but before he could say anything else a bird-faced woman with frizzy gray hair and tiny half-glasses perched on her beak of a nose stopped beside the table.
    “ Jessie . Jessie Benedict, it is you. I thought it was when I saw you from over there.” She nodded toward a booth on the other side of the crowded restaurant. “Haven't seen you in ages. How is everything going? Did you find another job?”
    Jessie looked up, recognizing the woman at once. It was hard to forget someone who had once fired you. “Hello, Mavis. Nice to see you again. Mavis, this is Sam Hatchard. Call him Hatch. Hatch, meet Mavis Fairley. You and Mavis have a lot in common, Hatch.”
    “We do?” Hatch was already on his feet, acknowledging the introduction with grave politeness.
    “Do we, indeed?” Mavis echoed brightly, waving him graciously back into his seat. “And what would that be, I wonder? Are you by any chance in the health-food business?”
    “No. I'm in nuts and bolts.”
    “Hatch is the new CEO at Benedict Fasteners,” Jessie explained. “And what you both have in common,” she added with a benign smile, “is that you've each had occasion to fire me.”
    “Oh, dear.” Mavis looked instantly concerned. “Not another unfortunate job situation, Jessie?”
    “Afraid so.”
    “She was wreaking havoc in her father's company,” Hatch said matter-of-factly. “What kind of damage did she do to your firm?”
    “To be perfectly blunt, she was driving off customers right and left. She managed my downtown store for a while. I'm in health foods, as I said, and sales began plummeting almost